Please Help

okh111

Hi

I've never posted on here before.

I'm in debt to Scottish Power and they've got a warrant to come round on Tuesday (6th July) to install a pre paid meter to claim the money back. Is there any way I can delay this? I'm desperately trying to get a loan to pay it off but am having difficulty. Also, I'm in a rented property, are they still allowed to install the meter?

Any help would be massively appreciated

Thanks

PNPSUKNET

They reseve the right to change your payment method, both to secure the debt and to secure future consumption. Why did you allow it to get to the stage, did the not send someone around todo a pre-disconnection visit?

UnderPressure

Hello and welcome to the forum

It is daunting when this happened, it happened to use 2 years ago with Swalec the first few weeks will be the hardest but you will get used to it, I tried to pull the landlord card it did not matter they still isntalled the meter.

If you are on a low income like use and you spend ( I think these figures are correct you can find out easy enough) more than 20% of your total income on energy so gas and electric you can apply for what is know as a social tarrif, takes some pestering to get and you have to proivde them with evidence but if you can get on it you can half your electric costs, when our metre was first in stalled we were paying around 16p per kwh when we managed to get onto the social tarrif that was cut in half to just over 8p per kwh, it made a huge difference.

When I metre was first installed they were taking our debt back at £20 per week, so all in all we were putting around £55 per week on the dam thing, after a bit if fighting and getting on the social tarrif we got our debt payments vut back to £5 per week we now only ever put £20 per week on the metre and never run out of electricity, at the moment we are building up credit at about £2 per week towards winter costs.

Ring them after it is installed and ask about their social tarrif if you qualify, also tell them you cannot afford huge weekly repayments, the time has come when you must communicate with them, they will install this metre but I promise in the long run they are fine, in fact I would not be without mine now 1 less bill and no more nagging letters, its habit now when we get our money every week the first thing we do is top it up and forget all about it then.

Dont worry it will work out be you need to be speaking to them.....

best of luck

fatbelly

CAB has a guide here:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/d_gas_and_electricity_arrears.pdf

dotstar24

this also happened to me two years ago. I owed £600 on electric and £600 on gas. they fitted the meters and tbh, you get used to it very quickly.. it was nice not to have an unexpected bill at the end of the month / quarter. the electric debt was paid off in about a year, i owe about £190 still on the gas. i've just moved to a new house and am going on to monthly DD....but, i might ask for the meters again....

otb666

if you ring them on monday-ask for a payment arrangement -if you gave children under 12/student/on benefit etc they will set up an arrangement at 3 per week as you will be classed as vunerable-by ringing them on monday and at lasrt resort booking appointment for a pp mtr you wont incure the warrant costs which will be added-best posting this on ultility forum

SwanJon

I think if the warrant is for Tuesday, it is too late to stop it - they've already been to court so will probably pass on the costs of that to you.

As above, it might be worthwhile asking for their social tariff. You can also negotiate how much you pay it back at each week, and remember that they don't charge you interest on the debt (like a loan would).

If they have a warrant and you are not in when they turn up, they will gain access (usually using a locksmith) and do the swap anyway.

okh111

Hi guys

Thanks for the tips. It's been installed and we're paying it back at £10 a week which I think should be fine.

Thanks again